This month I thought I would detail my top ten ways that a salesperson can increase their personal sales. There are three basic concepts to increasing sales from the standpoint of a salesperson. 1) To get more people to come into the store; 2) To sell more of the people that are already coming into the store – increasing your closing ratio; 3) To sell more to the people that you are already selling. Each of these top ten ways to increase sales is geared toward these three concepts.
1) Make a telephone call to your existing customers with a customer benefited reason for the call. For example, new merchandise arrivals, special events, anniversaries, birthdays, graduations etc. The secret to a successful telephone program is to get the customer to ask you to call them. Therefore, throughout the course of the year you need to make sure you are capturing contact information with permission for follow-up. For example: “Our buyers are going on a buying trip next month, would you like me to call you when I know what new merchandise we will have coming in?”
2) Ask every customer for a referral. Who else do you know that may be getting engaged soon? Who else do you know that is graduating this spring? Who else do you know that may be interested in jewelry? Would you mind giving them one of my business cards? I would love to meet them as well.
3) Carry and pass out business cards to people that you come in contact with in your personal life. Bank tellers, waiters and waitresses, post office employees etc. You may encounter hundreds of potential jewelry buyers in the next few weeks. Every one is potentially a customer.
4) Network within your community. Join the Chamber of Commerce, Red Cross, civic clubs and organizations, church groups, etc. Not from the standpoint of actually selling to anyone. But I know that the more people you encounter the more potential customers you will have.
5) Contact your friends and relatives about special events going on in their lives. Friends and relatives are a great source of potential customers and people that might just refer their friends to you. Don’t forget the people that you come in contact with on a personal level.
6) Ask every customer at least two add-on questions. For example: What other special events do you have coming up? When is your anniversary? Who else is on your Mother’s Day or Father’s Day gift-giving list? Who do you know that may be getting married soon?
7) Attempt to sell every customer higher quality merchandise through increasing their perception of value. The easiest way to bump up a sale is through increasing the customer perception of value in the higher priced and higher quality goods.
8) Ask every repair customer questions to get them involved in looking at jewelry. As long as the customer is in your store for a repair, you might just as well ask them to look at merchandise or determine any current jewelry needs.
9) Sell based on the emotional reason that customers buy, not just the technical. In this way, you are developing personal trade customers that feel that you are their friend in the jewelry business.
10) Turn over sales that you cannot complete to another salesperson and give them a chance to complete the sale. The reasons that people don’t buy are as numerous as the reasons that people do buy! Just because the customer didn’t like anything that you have shown them doesn’t mean that they may not like something another salesperson shows them. They could even buy the same piece you were showing, they just liked the next person more.
Good luck and work every minute of every day to increase your personal sales and productivity. Don’t fall into the sea of mediocrity that I see so many salespeople fall into. You really can and do make a difference in the success of your organization. A salesperson is one that causes the exchange of ownership of a product or service based on the wants and needs of the customer, with integrity!
Author, trainer, consultant, and speaker Brad Huisken is President of IAS Training. Mr. Huisken has authored several books and training manuals on sales and produces a Weekly Sales Training Meeting video series along with Aptitude Tests and Proficiency Exams for new hires, current sales staff and sales managers. In addition, he publishes a free weekly newsletter called “Sales Insight” For a free subscription or more information contact IAS Training at 800-248-7703, info@iastraining.com visit his website at www.iastraining.com.
